Robert Harrison Howe

Best known today for How We Robbed Mexico in 1848, Robert Harrison Howe was an American writer, journalist, and editor active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Contemporary records and library listings connect him with Chicago, and surviving references indicate he lived from 1856 to 1923.

Howe wrote on more than one subject. In 1915 he published The Evolution of Banking: A Study of the Development of the Credit System, showing an interest in economics and financial history as well as current affairs. His better-known later work on the Mexican-American War argues that expansion and power politics shaped the conflict, giving the book a forceful, revisionist tone that still feels direct.

That mix of reporter's urgency and historical argument makes his writing stand out. Even when his subjects are large and political, his style suggests a person used to writing for ordinary readers rather than for a narrow academic audience.